Kenya Independence Act 1963
| Year | 1963 |
Kenya Independence Act 1963
1963 CHAPTER 54
An Act to make provision for, and in connection with, the attainment by Kenya of fully responsible status within the Commonwealth, including provision for terminating the giving of financial and other assistance to the East African Common Services Organisation under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1959.
[3rd December 1963]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Provision for fully responsible status of Kenya.
(1) On and after 12th December 1963 (in this Act referred to as ‘the appointed day’) Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom shall have no responsibility for the government of Kenya or any part thereof.
(2) No Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on or after the appointed day shall extend, or be deemed to extend, to Kenya, or any part of Kenya, as part of the law thereof; and on and after that day the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to legislative powers in Kenya.
(3) In this Act ‘Kenya’ includes the territories comprised immediately before the appointed day in the Kenya Protectorate.
2 Consequential modifications of British Nationality Acts.
(1) On and after the appointed day, the British Nationality Acts 1948 and 1958 shall have effect as if—
(a ) in section 1(3) of the said Act of 1948 (which provides for persons to be British subjects or Commonwealth citizens by virtue of citizenship of certain countries) there were added at the end the words ‘and Kenya’;
(b ) in Schedule 1 to the British Protectorates, Protected States and Protected Persons Order in Council 1949 the words ‘Kenya Protectorate’ were omitted:
Provided that a person who, immediately before the appointed day, is for the purposes of the said Acts and Order in Council a British protected person by virtue of his connection with the Kenya Protectorate shall not cease to be such a British protected person for any of those purposes by reason of anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, but shall so cease upon his becoming a citizen of Kenya under the law thereof.
(2) Save as provided by section 3 of this Act, any person who immediately before the appointed day is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies shall on that day cease to be such a citizen if on that day he becomes a citizen of Kenya.
(3) On and after the appointed day, section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1948 (which provides for the registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies of a woman who has been married to such a citizen) shall not apply to a woman by virtue of her marriage to a person who on the appointed day ceases to be such a citizen under subsection (2) of this section, or would have done so if living on the appointed day.
(4) Part III of the British Nationality Act 1948 (which contains supplemental provisions) shall have effect for the purposes of the foregoing subsection and section 3 of this Act as if those provisions were included in that Act.
3 Persons retaining citizenship of United Kingdom and Colonies although becoming citizens of Kenya.
(1) Any reference in subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section to a colony, protectorate or protected state shall, subject to subsection (7) of this section, be construed as a reference to a territory which is a colony, protectorate or protected state (within the meaning of the British Nationality Act 1948) on the appointed day, and, accordingly, shall not include a reference to Kenya or any part thereof.
(2) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, a person shall not cease to be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies under section 2(2) of this Act if he, his father or his father's father—
(a ) was born in the United Kingdom or in a colony; or
(b ) is or was a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies; or
(c ) was registered as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies; or
(d ) became a British subject by reason of the annexation of any territory included in a colony.
(3) A person shall not cease to be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies under section 2(2) of this Act if he was born in a protectorate or protected state, or if his father or his father's father was so born and is or at any time was a British subject.
(4) A woman who is the wife of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies shall not cease to be such a citizen under section 2(2) of this Act unless her husband does so.
(5) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, the reference in subsection (2)(b ) of this section to a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies shall include a person who would, if living immediately before the commencement of the British Nationality Act 1948, have become a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of section 32(6) of that Act (which relates to persons given local naturalisation before that commencement in a colony or protectorate).
(6) Subsection (2) of this section shall not apply to a person by virtue of any certificate of naturalisation granted or registration effected by the governor or government of a territory outside the United Kingdom which is not a colony, protectorate or protected state (within the meaning of the said Act of 1948) on the appointed day.
(7) The protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland shall be excepted from the operation of any reference in this section to a protectorate.
4 Consequential modification of other enactments.
(1) Notwithstanding anything in the Interpretation Act 1889 the expression ‘colony’ in any Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on or after the appointed day shall not include Kenya or any part thereof.
(2) On and after the appointed day—
(a ) the expression ‘colony’ in the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 and the Naval Discipline Act 1957 shall not include Kenya or any part thereof; and
(b ) in the definitions of ‘Commonwealth force’ in sections 225(1) and 223(1) respectively of the said Acts of 1955, and in the definition of ‘Commonwealth country’ in section 135(1) of the said Act of 1957, at the end there shall be added the words ‘or Kenya’.
(3) No Order in Council made after 31st December 1963 under section 1 of the Army and Air Force Act 1961 shall operate to continue either of the said Acts of 1955 in force as part of the law of Kenya or any part thereof.
(4) On and after the appointed day, the provisions specified in Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments respectively specified in that Schedule, and Her Majesty may by Order in Council, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, make such further adaptations in any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed before this Act, or in any instrument having effect under any such Act, as appear to Her necessary in consequence of section 1 of this Act; and any Order in Council made under this subsection may be varied or revoked by a subsequent Order in Council so made, and may, if made after the appointed day, be made so as to take effect on the appointed day.
(5) Subsection (4) of this section, Schedule 2 to this Act and any Order in Council made under the said subsection (4) shall not extend to Kenya, or any part of Kenya, as part of the law thereof.
5 Termination of assistance to East African Common Services Organisation.
(1) Any scheme under section 1 of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1959 made with respect to the East African Common Services Organisation shall cease to have effect on the appointed day, without prejudice to the making of payments in pursuance of the scheme on or after that day in respect of any period falling before that day.
(2) No loan under section 2 of the said Act of 1959 shall be made on or after the appointed day to the said Organisation; and section 4(3) of the Tanganyika Independence Act 1961 and section 4 of the Uganda Independence Act 1962 (by virtue of which loans may be made to that Organisation under the said section 2) shall cease to have effect on the appointed day, without prejudice to anything done by virtue of the said sections 4(3) and 4, or either of them, before that day.
(3) In this section ‘the East African Common Services Organisation’ means the organisation established under that name by an agreement made on 9th December 1961 between the Governments of Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda.
6 Judicial Committee of Privy Council.
(1) Her Majesty may by Order in Council made before the appointed day confer on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council such jurisdiction in respect of appeals from any court having jurisdiction under the law of Kenya or any part thereof, and in respect of any proceedings concerning judges of any such court, as appear to Her to be appropriate.
(2) An Order in Council under this section may determine the classes of cases in which, and the conditions as to leave and otherwise subject to which, any such appeal or other proceedings may be entertained by the said Committee, and the practice and procedure to be followed...
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